Semere Teklehaimanot Khasay has jail time increased by three years for unprovoked golf club assault

A MAN jailed for viciously bashing a man with a golf club for no reason in suburban Perth has been slapped with an extra three years after prosecutors successfully argued his sentence was “manifestly inadequate”.

Semere Teklehaimanot Khasay, 50, was sentenced to four years and eight months in June last year by District Court judge Andrew Stavrianou after a jury convicted him of intentional grievous bodily harm.

Following an appeal argued by the State’s top prosecutor, Director of Public Prosecutions Joe McGrath, three Court of Appeal judges increased Khasay’s sentence to seven years and eight months.

Khasay bashed an acquaintance, Henok Araya Kiros, with a golf club outside a St James house on April 6 2012 after following him there in his car after a verbal altercation at a Bentley supermarket.

He hit the victim to the head, causing him to fall to the ground, and then struck him another three or four times before driving away.

Mr Kiros underwent multiple surgeries after suffering a fractured skull, bleeding, bruising and swelling to the brain as well as fractures to his jaw and collarbone.

He has been left with permanent weakness on the left side of his body.

At trial Khasay, an Ethiopian refugee and father-of-three who worked as an interpreter and truck and bus driver in Australia, denied committing the offence.

In handing down the unanimous appeal decision, Justice Michael Buss said the attack was unprovoked, premeditated, sustained and “involved random and senseless violence”.

He said despite Khasay’s psychological difficulties, he was satisfied the original sentence was “unreasonable or plainly unjust”.

“The sentence was not merely ‘at the lower end of the scale’ or ‘low’. It was substantially outside the sentencing range open to his Honour on a proper exercise of the sentencing discretion,” Justice Buss said.

The maximum penalty for the offence is 20 years jail.

Khasay will be eligible for parole after serving five years and eight months of his sentence, which was backdated to the time of the offence when he was taken into custody.